Featured Grantee
Vibrant Health – Wyandotte Neighborhood Clinics
Vibrant Health’s mission is to provide access to respectful, empowering, culturally sensitive and appropriate high quality health care for the community, regardless of socio-economic obstacles. Vibrant Health earned Federally Qualified Health Center Look-a-Like status in 2018 and operates out of three clinic locations in Wyandotte County.
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Recently, our CEO walked out of the Vibrant Health office and onto the elevator behind two moms and their children. The first, a Latina woman with a preschool-aged son and a newborn daughter. The son had a SportingKC hat on and was carrying his backpack full of toys and books to keep him entertained during his sister’s doctor visit.
The second mom, from Somalia, had on a bright blue floral dress and a beautiful green scarf around her head. Her daughter, maybe two years old, flashed a bright smile as he walked on to the elevator.
This sounds like a fairly standard observation – a parent taking their kids to the doctor. It’s a visit we often take for granted, but it’s not that simple. Broadly, our health care system isn’t easily accessible for families like these. Culturally, we create barriers to health care and access to services that should be a basic right for all people.
Recently, three local clinics merged to create Vibrant Health – Wyandotte Neighborhood Clinics, with the mission “to improve the health and well-being of Wyandotte County residents.” Originally founded as a pediatric clinic, we now provide primary medical care, dental care, and mental health care for both children and adults. This merger allows Vibrant Health to serve more families with high-quality, consistent care, securing affordable healthcare for the more than 9,000 patients of Vibrant Health.
More than 22% of Wyandotte County residents – approximately 36,000 people – are uninsured and many more have trouble accessing health care providers. Vibrant Health operates with a sliding fee, which means families without insurance coverage pay a nominal fee appropriate to their income level to access critical healthcare through our clinics. And when they come to us, we provide respectful, empowering, culturally-sensitive high-quality health care for every member of our community. Access to primary care supports families in fundamental ways. It allows an unemployed individual to seek and maintain a job; it improves a child’s chances of succeeding in school; and it helps prevent the kind of catastrophes that land people in the hospital unnecessarily. Vibrant Health’s work supports the well-being of our entire community.
The need for behavioral health services is growing rapidly in Wyandotte County as our community understands more deeply how trauma impacts children and adults. Many in our community have been impacted by multiple traumas and, with support from the Wyandotte Health Foundation, Vibrant Health has expanded behavioral health services to include three bilingual therapists. These therapists work with children, their families, and adults to provide mental health care using interventions like play therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, and family systems coaching, to treat depression, anxiety, behavior issues, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, hyperactivity in children, and more. We’re working to provide a safe space for individuals and families to be able to process trauma in their lives, and find and integrate coping skills into their daily routines that will enable them to feel healthier and happier.
Our vision is to be a model for healthcare in the region, reducing the challenges our community faces, increasing access to health care among the neediest in our community, and creating an environment where all Wyandotte County residents can flourish. Over the next year, we will provide more than $1.3 million of charitable care through our work at three neighborhood clinic locations, a school-based dental outreach program, refugee health assessments and a teen maternity program. Philanthropic support from foundations, corporations and individuals makes our work possible.
That short elevator ride was a good reminder why our work matters. Everyone deserves respect, compassion and opportunity. And that’s why we’re here. We provide compassionate care for all people. Regardless of background. Regardless of language. Regardless of income. Regardless of status. Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Regardless of religion. We are here and we welcome you.
Current Grant Awards
Childhood Trauma
Avenue of Life
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Funding will provide necessary training to become a Trauma Informed Systems of Care Center through a three step process including design, training delivery, and application.
Bethel Neighborhood Center
Amount Awarded: $10,153
Funding will provide agency wide training to increase knowledge, understanding, and quality of service provision through a trauma informed lens.
Donnelly College
Amount Awarded: $5,016
Funding will allow Donnelly to train all faculty and staff to provide trauma-informed educational and student support services, and to implement and adopt a trauma informed approach in educating college students.
The Family Conservancy
Amount Awarded: $23,265
The Family Conservancy will partner with three local Wyandotte County child care centers to provide trauma-informed training to all child care staff at each center; additionally families will participate in Conscious Discipline parenting classes.
KC Healthy Kids
Amount Awarded: $37,484
$13,395 – Healthy Kids Bright Futures will provide training for key personnel at two non-Head Start Early Care and Education Centers (ECECs) and technical assistance to guide the ECECs in establishing procedures, training staff, and accessing pertinent community resources to better assist children and families experiencing ACEs.
$24,089 – Funding will support hiring of a Community Navigator for the Healthy Kids Bright Futures program; the Navigator will work with families in two participating child care sites and help them access trauma-informed mental health services.
PACES Inc.
Amount Awarded: $21,026
Funding will support PACES providing schools and organizations in Wyandotte County with specialized Trauma-Informed Care training to increase awareness and understanding about how trauma and high ACE scores impact children and their families.
Saint Francis Community Services, Inc.
Amount Awarded: $50,992
$7,332 – Saint Francis Community Services will increase access to training in trauma specific treatment and training for staff and foster care parents, and community training on neuro-development and trauma.
$43,660 – From Trauma to Resiliency program will increase access to trauma-informed mental/behavioral health service in Wyandotte County by supporting a trauma-trained mental health therapist.
Turner House Children’s Clinic (dba Vibrant Health)
Amount Awarded: $67,064
$61,225 – Funding will provide support for additional behavioral health staff to expand the culturally and trauma sensitive health care services provided, including access to trauma informed screenings.
$5,839 – Funding will provide support for training to become a trauma aware organization per the Missouri Model Trauma Development Framework.
University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute, Inc. (Project Eagle)
Amount Awarded: $105,000
Project Eagle will implement an evidenced based, home visitation initiative, Attachment Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), which is a 12-week intervention. Funding will support hiring of a parent coach and program support.
Wyandotte Health Department
Amount Awarded: $25,000
$15,480 – Trauma-Informed Care, to provide workforce development training to all health department employees and community partners on Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) and trauma-informed systems of care.
$9,520 – Healthy Communities Wyandotte’s Alive & Thrive Action Team support in planning educational and informational events about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Primary Health Care Award Recipients
Caritas Clinics (Duchesne Clinic)
Amount Awarded: $165,000
This grant will support the provision of medical care and associated support services for underserved residents of Wyandotte County.
Children’s Mercy West Cordell D. Meeks, Jr. Clinic
Amount Awarded: $45,214
Children’s Mercy West is a pediatric clinic which provides primary care including social services to an underserved population in Wyandotte County
KU Endowment
Amount Awarded: $46,000
$40,000 – BullDoc Clinic – This funding will expand the capacity of the BullDoc Clinic beyond health care and basic mental health screening to include screening ACEs and social determinants of health needs and promote trauma-informed care among health care, social, and educational providers at Wyandotte High School.
$6,000 – JayDoc Free Clinic – JayDoc Free Clinic is a student-run free clinic which provides preventive and urgent care to the uninsured/underinsured in the community; JayDoc provides specialty clinics including Diabetes Night, Women’s Health and Dental Night.
Kansas City CARE Clinic
Amount Awarded: $10,000
The Kansas City CARE clinic provides patient-centered medical care to low-income and uninsured adults for acute and chronic diseases.
Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, Inc.
Amount Awarded: $10,000
Samuel U Rodgers Health Center provides health care services for Wyandotte County residents at any access point including access to medical, dental and behavioral health care to both children and adults.
Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care
Amount Awarded: $212,000
Family Health Care provides primary care medical services including specialty care of infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis and other chronic diseases such as MS and cancer. Family Health Care also provides wellness and comprehensive prenatal and delivery care through the Maternal Options that Matter program.
Swope Health Services
Amount Awarded: $140,000
Swope Health Services is a Federally Qualified Health Center which provides quality, comprehensive primary care and dental services to all age groups in Wyandotte County.
Turner House Children’s Clinic, Inc. (dba Vibrant Health)
Amount Awarded: $314,275
Turner House Children’s Clinic provides primary health care, dental services, and mental health services to underserved children and adults in Wyandotte County; services include preventive care, well-child exams, immunizations, and dental services among others. In addition, Turner House Children’s Clinic will provide a school based oral health program. The clinic operates out of three locations.
Unified Government Public Health Department
Amount Awarded: $119,570
The UG Public Health Department increases access to radiology services to the underinsured residents of Wyandotte County by partnering with the area safety net clinics to provide vouchers for patients to receive appropriate radiology services.
Special Initiatives
The Family Conservancy
Amount Awarded: $165,000
The Communities Aligned in Early Development and Education (CAEDE) program will expand access of full-day, full year childcare and increase the quality of care through building capacity, systems support, and professional and educational incentives.
Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, Topeka, KS
Amount Awarded: $25,000
$15,000 – Health Reform Resource Project: Funded in partnership with the Kansas Grantmakers in Health (Kansas Health Foundation (Wichita), REACH Healthcare Foundation (Merriam), Sunflower Foundation (Topeka), Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (Kansas City, MO), and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (Hutchinson). The goal of the project is to enhance access, quality and value of health services for Kansans.
$10,000 – Kansas Alliance for a Healthy Kansas: Funded in partnership with the Kansas Grantmakers in Health. This statewide coalition includes hundreds of organizations with a share vision to encourage people and organizations to promote policies aimed at assuring everyone has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. A current goal is KanCare (Medicaid) expansion in Kansas.
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC)
Amount Awarded: $10,000
For its partnership with Cultivate KC’s Double Up Food Bucks program (final year of a three-year project)
Wyandotte County Health Department
Amount Awarded: $15,480
Provide training to all staff on childhood trauma.
Wyandotte Economic Development Council)
Amount Awarded: $10,000
For its Workforce Solutions initiative to improve job opportunities for Wyandotte County residents and its leadership on the Wyandotte County Community Health Improvement Plan’s “Jobs and Education” goal (final year of a three-year project).
Apply for a grant
Applications will be reviewed by the Wyandotte Health Foundation Board of Directors who will determine grant awards, including level of funding.